Companies typically use the World Wide Web to disseminate information both internally, to employees and contractors, and externally, to customers and business partners. This information is usually generated by subject matter experts (SMEs), who are typically people with expertise in the information domain, but who are not usually technically skilled. In order to publish this information to the Web, or edit the existing information already on a company Internet or Intranet Web site, SMEs typically work with technically skilled Web developers, who generally combine Web coding or computer programming skills and graphics design skills. Skilled Web developers are an expensive resource. Moreover, Web developers may divide the coding and graphics arts expertise into multiple people.
Web sites generally comprise a Web server, that serves the visual and data content to the user's browser many times in a format, such as hypertext markup language (HTML), and a file transfer server, that provides read and write-access to the files that make up the visual and data content of the Web sites. While Web servers and file transfer servers are conceptualized as separate and independent machines, Web servers and file transfer servers are typically software applications, often times running on the same computer. The underlying Web files are usually stored on the computer, and the Web server and file transfer server interact with those files in different ways. Web servers typically allow read-only access to the files through HTML browsers, compared to the read/write-access allowed by the file transfer servers. Because the file transfer server allows read/write-access to Web files, general users are not typically given access to the file transfer server because changing files through the file transfer server will usually change how the Web pages are served through the Web server to the accessing browsers. Instead, file transfer server access is generally limited to Web developers or those who have some authority over the Web content. The file transfer server is typically run using a specific transfer protocol, such as file transfer protocol (FTP), secure FTP (SFTP), or the like. Additionally, the file transfer server may be set up on a local area network (LAN) or the like. While the Web server delivers HTML content, it uses hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) to transfer the requests and the resulting HTML content between the user's browser and the Web server. Even though both FTP and HTTP are transfer protocols, they are designed for different purposes and are not necessarily compatible.
For example, the file management system for HTTP will generally be different than that of FTP. HTTP is designed for more open access than FTP. HTTP communications revolve around establishing communication between a browser and a Web server in which HTML documents and any supporting documents that correspond to an HTTP request are transmitted from the Web server (sometimes called an HTTP server) to the browser to be rendered to the user. An example HTTP request is: http://www.macromedia.com/index.html. The example request would likely be entered by a user into a Web browser. The http:// indicates the request is an HTTP request. The www.macromedia.com indicates the specific Web server domain to which the request is directed. Index.html is the specific file requested for display.
In contrast, FTP includes functions for logging onto the network, listing directories, copying files, and the like. An example FTP command is: ftp://ftp.macromedia.com. When entered in a browser, the ftp:// indicates that the request is an FTP request. The ftp.macromedia.com is the name of the domain that the user wishes to log onto. Login and password information would still generally be required for the user to actually log on to the ftp.macromedia.com FTP server. Once logged on, the user can download and store files, see directories of the files on the FTP server and the like, depending, in general, on the level of authorization the particular user has for that particular FTP server. However, if the user were looking for the index.html file from the HTTP example, it would likely not be found if the user attempted to access www.macromedia.com/index.html. The user would need to obtain the FTP path that corresponds to that particular Web site.
General users are not typically given access to the file transfer server for any particular Web site because manipulating files in the file transfer server will usually change how the Web pages are seen or not seen by the accessing browsers. File transfer server access is generally limited to Web developers or those who have some authority over the Web content. Web development environments and development tools exist to assist the developers both retrieve and edit the underlying files that make up the Web pages. In order to access the FTP server, a Web designer or developer is generally prompted by the server access application to provide the FTP host name, the FTP login, the FTP password, and the FTP path. While the FTP host name, login, and password are usually the pieces of information that will get the user onto the FTP server, without the FTP root path name, a user will not likely find the location on the FTP server where the underlying Web files are located. For most experienced designers or developers all of this information is relatively easy to know and/or obtain. A novice or non-technical user may know the FTP host name, login, and password, but would generally not know the FTP root path; and, without the root path, the FTP server will generally not allow access to the appropriate file locations. One solution for such novice or non-technical persons is to track down an information technology (IT) professional or other computer professional to obtain that information. Another solution is to simply hire an experienced designer to make the desired changes to the Web site. However, each of these current solutions comes at a cost of considerable time and money; sometimes just to make a few minor changes or revisions to the Web site.